Cushioning dunnage product comprising resilient lateral pillow-like portions and a central reduced thickness connecting portion running lengthwise of the pad-like product, is well known in the art. U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 3,655,500 dated April 11, 1972 to G. R. Johnson and entitled A Resilient Cushioning Dunnage Product For Use In Packaging And Packing; U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 4,109,040 dated Aug. 22, 1978 to Gary W. Ottaviano and entitled Cushioning Dunnage Product Produced From Cushioning Dunnage Mechanism; and U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 4,717,613 dated Jan. 5, 1988 to Gary W. Ottaviano and entitled Mechanism And Method For Producing Cushioning Dunnage, disclose known flexible resilient pad-like dunnage products formed from web or sheet stock material and comprising lateral resilient pillow-like portions connected along a central portion of the pad lengthwise thereof, together with methods and apparatuses for producing the same.
There are many other prior art patents disclosing cushioning dunnage producing mechanisms and methods for producing a flexible resilient pad-like cushioning dunnage product of the general type of the present invention, such as shown for instance in U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 3,509,798 dated May 5, 1970 to G. R. Johnson and entitled Mechanism And Method For Producing Cushioning Dunnage; U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 3,603,216 dated Sept. 7, 1971 to G. R. Johnson entitled Method For Producing Cushioning Dunnage, and relating to a method of producing a resilient cushioning dunnage product of the general type aforediscussed; U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 3,799,039 dated Mar. 26, 1974 to G. R. Johnson entitled Cushioning Dunnage Mechanism And Method, and disclosing a cushioning dunnage producing mechanism for producing a cushioning dunnage product of the general type of the present invention; U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 4,026,198 dated May 31, 1977 to Gary W. Ottaviano entitled Cushioning Dunnage Mechanism, Transfer Cart Therefor, And Method, and disclosing a cushioning dunnage producing mechanism operable for producing a cushioning dunnage product of the general type of the present invention; and U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 4,750,896 dated June 14, 1988 entitled Method And Mechanism For Producing Cushioning Dunnage Product, and disclosing a flexible pad-like cushioning dunnage product of the general type as that of the present invention. U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 4,650,456 dated Mar, 17, 1987 to Steven E. Armington entitled Mechanism For Producing Pad-Like Cushioning Dunnage Product From Sheet Material With Separate Stock Roll Cart, discloses a further arrangement of converter mechanism and associated stock roll mounting cart, for producing a cushioning dunnage product of the general type of the present invention. These prior art patents of applicants' assignee are incorporated herein by reference.
While coining and/or adhesive means have been utilized in these prior art arrangements, for connecting or holding the pillow-like or pillow-shaped portions of the pad-like product together into pad-like form, to applicants' knowledge, no one heretofore has utilized perforations to aid in the holding or securement of the central connecting portion of the pad-like product, for maintaining the pad-like or pad-shaped form of the product.